In today’s Ottawa Citizen:
byRe: The shortest life, Margaret Somerville, Aug. 5.
I wept the whole time that I read Margaret Somerville’s opinion article.
Seven years ago I was pregnant with our first born, a son Darren. When I was 24 weeks pregnant, we found out that he had a rare congenital anomaly, a diaphragmatic hernia. They told us that his chance for survival wouldn’t be good at 50/50.
The first thing that they offered us also was to terminate the pregnancy. I went into hysterics that this was the only option they were offering us.
We didn’t know anything about what he had. To us it seemed that if this is what they are offering, it must mean he doesn’t have a hope at all to live.
My husband and I had discussed before we even thought about conceiving that if ever there was anything wrong with our baby, that depending on the severity of it, we would continue on in the pregnancy no matter what.
We chose to continue with the pregnancy because there was a chance things would be fine in our mind with the chances we were given.
The doctor was so casual with his comment that “so folks are we going to terminate this pregnancy today?” That was before we knew what a diaphragmatic hernia even was. Our son only lived for six days and we decided to remove treatment as he got worse over those six days. We had no regrets, for it had ultimately been our decision about his care and to this day I am thankful for the decision we made.
I had a lot of “issues” to deal with about our care and how we were treated but we have made it through that chapter of our lives and have had two beautiful children since then. Thank you to “M.G” for writing your story as it brought back a lot of memories for us. We are glad that people are getting to hear the other side of the story.
Thank you Ms. Somerville for sharing the e-mail. It is appreciated. It helps to know that other people, as sad as it is, have been asked the same questions and sadly treated the same way.
LUCY HONSINGER, Nepean
Carla Burlando says
Hi I just came across your blog and voted for the best new Canadian blog award for you. I have written about and experienced the decision to carry a baby who was considered “not compatible with life” to term. We lost our first son to Trisomy 18 several years ago. It opened my eyes to how many babies are being aborted and how insisted many of the health care professionals are in recommending this option to parents…even when the baby has a survivable and thrivable condition. Who are we to judge who deserves to live and who doesn’t? And in the devastation of a poor prenatal diagnosis parents are often confused and will do what ever the “professionals” tell them is best. Its so sad. On my blog I write a little about abortion in “why is is so hard to just take a stand?” Thankyou for being brave and honest enough to take a stand for life.